Posts with tag john c mcginley
Posted May 8th 2008 11:42PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, Scrubs, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S07E11) Well, that was a little confusing, wasn't it? Kelso is still in charge of the hospital, Keith is still around, and J.D. and Elliot are talking about their almost-kiss from the 6th season finale, something we thought they had gotten past awhile ago.
It was pretty obvious that, once NBC told Bill Lawrence that he couldn't make any more new episodes after the strike was over, there was a mutual decision to make "My Princess" the season (and, as it turns out, the NBC) finale. Problem was, since it was episode 709 (look it up
at the NBCU Media Village site), some continuity problems would rear their heads.
Oh, well. Continuity was just a small problem with this episode. I will say this: any episode Zach Braff directs is going to be ambitious, and this was about as ambitious as
Scrubs has gotten. But for some reason, I was expecting more from this
Princess Bride homage than I got. It was funny in spots, but it could have been a whole lot funnier.
Continue reading Scrubs: My Princess (season finale)
Posted May 2nd 2008 11:23AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Scrubs, Video, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S07E10) So next week, according to NBC, is the
"Scrubs finale," which means that only 11 episodes will have aired for what was going to be the show's last season.
Epguides.com lists a 12th episode, but I'm guessing it either never got made or it'll be saved for the eighth season on ABC.
Anyway, tonight was definitely an episode full of transitions. Kelso's on the golf course. Cox is the interim chief of medicine ("Chief Dr. Cox," as he orders everyone to call him). Carla wants another baby, especially now that Turk's a Uniball. Ted's got some confidence for once, and is challenging the authority of the Janitor. And J.D. and Elliot are starting to look more and more like a couple, especially when they're cooing over little Sam Dorian.
Continue reading Scrubs: My Waste of Time - VIDEO
Posted Apr 25th 2008 12:55AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, Scrubs, Video, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S07E09) Last week, one of our commenters, perhaps inspired by Shakespeare, left the following comment on
my generally positive review of "My Manhood" (spelling and capitalization have not been touched):
what are you doing reviewing a show you obvioulsy disdain? you suck.
While I generally don't respond to witty comments like these, it gives me a good opportunity to remind folks that, yes, I do like
Scrubs. In fact, it's one of my all-time favorite shows; I laugh my butt off at the reruns, even if I've seen them a hundred times. When I don't like an episode, it's usually because I'm disappointed. I know the show can do so much better, and with limited episodes left, it disheartens me when I come across a dud. It disheartens me even more when there's a string of a few duds in a row.
This episode, though, was not a dud. In fact, it was pretty funny, and it felt like one of the show's original writers penned it. I'll talk more about that later, but I first want to ask one important question...
Continue reading Scrubs: My Dumb Luck - VIDEO
Posted Apr 18th 2008 1:01AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, Scrubs, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S07E08) When I was watching the cold open to this episode, one thought came to my mind, "Oy, I don't know how I'm going to put up with another season." Usually on
Scrubs, the cold open is a good indication of how the episode is going to go, comedy-wise.This cold open was not only
not particularly funny, but it seemed oddly paced, as well. The only funny part about it was the gag about Ted being
The Janitorial's investigative reporter because no one ever knows he's there.
But then something happened: the episode got funny. Not peak-level
Scrubs funny, not even peak-level season seven funny. But it at least gave me hope that Bill Lawrence and his gang have enough in the tank to give us another twenty or so episodes (between what's left this season and what they'll likely shoot for ABC next year) and not make me want to stick a fork in my eye or, worse yet, turn the show off altogether.
Continue reading Scrubs: My Manhood
Posted Apr 11th 2008 12:00AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, Scrubs, Video, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S07E07) God, what a snoozer this episode was. And you can't really blame it on the writers being rusty after the strike; this is the first of the last five episodes made before the strike, which NBC held until it could pair it with new episodes of the rest of the Thursday lineup. In fact, as we found out, this is the first of the five
final NBC episodes, as the show wasn't picked up by the Peacock. We'll likely see an eighth season on ABC, but nothing has been set yet.
Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, the boringness of this episode. There were two decent laughs in this one: "brinner" and... you know what? I can't think of the other. There was some story advancement in this episode, but overall it was so unmemorable that I'm just going to pretend that next week's episode is the first
Scrubs since the strike. Yeah, that'll work.
Continue reading Scrubs: My Bad Too - VIDEO
Posted Dec 7th 2007 1:41AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, Scrubs, Episode Reviews
(S07E06) I've been getting mixed signals, from commenters as well as fellow critics, about this season of
Scrubs. A lot of TV Squad readers have been finding more fault with the episodes this year than I have, and the
Star-Ledger's Alan Sepinwall called this season "flat and repetitive"
on his blog. But I've been enjoying it so far; I think that the flatness some see is a low-key-ness that we haven't seen since season two or so. And the repetition? Final-season homages to the past. Anyway, I've been liking this season because
anything that even slightly improves on last season's general clunkiness makes me happy.
All that being said, this episode didn't do it for me. It just wasn't funny. Even the most reliably funny characters, ones that save otherwise clumsy episodes, just didn't have it in them this week. And even the touching J.D. - Elliot moment rang a bit hollow.
Continue reading Scrubs: My Number One Doctor
Posted Nov 30th 2007 1:42AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, Scrubs, Episode Reviews
(S07E05) I really have to give Bill Lawrence and his staff credit; they're really doing a nice job of making the final season of
Scrubs a strong one. This is yet another example of how the writers have made the show funnier by making things less wacky. In fact, the lack of wackiness parallels how both Turk and J.D. are becoming more like real adults than either of them want to be.
Were there some tired jokes in this episode? Sure. But the laugh quotient was pretty high this week, and that's all anyone can ask, right?
Continue reading Scrubs: My Growing Pains
Posted Nov 2nd 2007 1:16AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, Scrubs, Episode Reviews
(S07E02) Despite what I knew about this episode going in -- that it would be the one where J.D. and Kim finally have their baby -- I didn't expect it to be so warm-hearted and almost gimmick-free.
We've been hearing rumblings from Bill Lawrence, Zach Braff and company that the final season of
Scrubs was going to be more reminiscent of the show's earlier seasons, where there were flights of fancy but J.D. was a more realistic character and the fantasies weren't quite as outlandish. While last week's season premiere didn't quite reach those standards, this episode did. In fact, this felt more like one of those first half-dozen first-season episodes that were slower-paced and relatively restrained, and it was quite refreshing to see.
Continue reading Scrubs: My Hard Labor
Posted May 4th 2007 12:21AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, Scrubs, Episode Reviews
(S06E19) Notgettingany Syndrome is an affliction that affects millions of American men, and it seems to run rampant at Sacred Heart, doesn't it? Carla's still not feelin' it months after having a baby, so Turk goes without. The Todd always talks a good game, but no one's getting into his banana hammock. Kelso can't find any interesting Asian massage therapists to befriend; he's so desperate, he's thinking of actually having sex with his wife. And, J.D.... Well, we all know what's going on with J.D.
What does all this mean? Lots of cold showers. A lot of thinking about your aunt's arm fat. And it also means we've found one of the funniest episodes of the season.
Continue reading Scrubs: My Cold Shower
Posted Apr 12th 2007 11:05PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, Scrubs, Episode Reviews
(S06E16) This episode started promisingly enough, which was ironic, since it opened at Laverne's funeral. But seeing how everyone dealt with losing a co-worker was, as usual, the most interesting aspect of this entire episode. This isn't the first time the
Scrubs crew has had to deal with loss; the death of Jordan's brother Ben seemed to tear a lot of people up. But this is the first time a death affected everyone, and we see that Dr. PeePants Murphy smiles over the fact that he did Laverne's autopsy, Keith wants to deepen his relationship with Elliot, and Carla wonders why no one is as broken up as she is.
But, of course, no one beats J.D.
Continue reading Scrubs: My Words of Wisdom
Posted Mar 8th 2007 11:10PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, NBC, OpEd, Scrubs
(S06E12) OK, let's take care of three things off the bat:
1. Note to network programmers: It's pretty obvious you're airing a show's episodes out of order when one of the stars is shaved bald one week and has his previous mop of hair the next.
2. Looks like the two-tone scrubs have graduated from "extra" to "star" status. Still not sure how I feel about them; they kind of look like softball shirts.
3. Yes, the "Fishbowl" of the title applies to the room most of the cast was in during the bulk of the episode, as well as the fishbowl Janitor was holding in an effort to out-think J.D. It probably also refers to the hospital, and the fishbowls we all think we're in, etc. etc.
Like most of the episodes this year, this one had a lot of funny moments. But it also had a lot more forced humor than I can remember
Scrubs having in the past.
Continue reading Scrubs: My Fishbowl
Posted Mar 1st 2007 11:15PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, NBC, OpEd, Scrubs
(S06E11) When
I interviewed Bill Lawrence in January, one of the things he made a point of mentioning was how he and his writers like to try to avoid standard sitcom clichés when they can. "The one thing we're adamant about here is you can't do old hacky sitcom stories unless you do them and do a twist on them so it's not the same old story," he told me.
Nothing is more hacky in sitcomland than the clip show, is there? Up until now,
Scrubs has avoided doing one, and I'm guessing it's because Bill and his writers probably didn't know how to do one in a unique and funny way. Well, apparently they came up with something. Unfortunately, it wasn't really all that unique. But it was a little funny.
Continue reading Scrubs: My Night to Remember
Posted Feb 9th 2007 12:10AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, NBC, OpEd, Scrubs
(S06E08) While my brother Rich is in North Carolina, performing with his troupe at the Dirty South Improv Festival, I have the honors of reviewing
Scrubs this week. Bro will return next week for your reading pleasure.
Something about this season of
Scrubs has been bugging me; the episodes felt weird. Not that they weren't funny, but the dynamic in them just seemed off. Lots of people standing around while other people made jokes. Not enough of the interaction you've come to love from the show; Cox calling J.D. girl's names; Kelso berating everyone; Janitor torturing J.D. and loving Elliot; J.D. and Turk showing "man love," Carla telling people what to do, etc. Last week's episode, with all the out-of-place arguments about the Iraq war, seemed especially off-note to me.
This week's episode brought back some of the dynamic that we used to love. At least in the first half. But the second half switched to the more dramatic end of the scale, and whatever laughs were there fell flat. It's as if a the funny got sheared off the sides of Kelso's RV instead of the walls.
Continue reading Scrubs: My Road to Nowhere
Posted Jan 17th 2007 8:19PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, NBC, Scrubs, Video
Are you ready for some bad singing? Eh, forget that
American Idol crap. The much-hyped
Scrubs musical is tomorrow night. For a whole half hour, you can watch perfectly respectable/paid actors attempt to harmonize! Actually, I am kind-of curious to see who is a good singer. Something tells me either the Janitor or Bob Kelso is going to bring down the house. What I really want is some head-banging, hateful music from pregnant Jordan.
We've got a clip after the jump of one of the musical numbers from tomorrow night's episode. You may have already seen this, as NBC released it last year. It's a super-creepy ballad with J.D. and Turk called "Guy Love".
Look for another clip tomorrow!
Continue reading Scrubs preview clip for tomorrow's episode
Posted Jan 4th 2007 3:33PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, NBC, House, Scrubs
As if you needed a reason to watch
Scrubs... tonight's new episode is a spoof on the popular Fox series,
House. Without giving too much away, Dr. Cox (John C. McGinley) channels Dr. House to figure out two medical mysteries: why a man's skin has turned orange and why a woman without heart problems is suffering from heart failure. He also has a personal mystery to solve involving Elliot Reed's strange behavior. It's called "My House" and I'm not sure whether Dr. Cox will be walking with a cane or not- but I'd surely expect it.
This all makes me wish that I've seen
House more than once because there will probably be a lot of great inside jokes that will totally fly over my head.
House, by the way, returns with new episodes next Tuesday.
[Via
TV Tattle]
Next Page >
Celebrate the 4th by watching television!
Stargate Atlantis season five - An early look
Saving Grace season two: An early look
